Howdy, I'm David Wolfpaw, a web developer and troublemaker. I handled WordPress maintenance and support via FixUpFox, and speak, write, and consult about WordPress, business processes, and productivity.

I like to save time and repurpose code wherever I can, and several years ago I decided that I needed to build my own starter theme. This theme would be a Genesis child theme, and it would incorporate many of the features that I use over and over again for client sites. I put the code up on Github, so you can download or repurpose my Genesis child theme used for Orange Blossom Media projects.

Overview

I will clarify now that I haven’t updated this theme in a few months, and I clearly need to give it some TLC this weekend. For instance, I’m still loading version 4.7.0 of FontAwesome, when the superior version 5.0.13 (as of writing) is even better and easier to use. I’ve included it already, but I need to update the maintenance version and remove the unused, older files. Likewise, I need to remove the favicon which has been replaced with a WordPress customizer feature.

In addition to providing an icon font, the theme enqueues a login stylesheet, as well as some functions that allow you to change the login page title, icon, and layout. This makes it easier to add client information to the WordPress login screen, making it feel more custom to them.

I also pre-include a few scripts that I use for a lot of sites. This includes Sidr, a script for pull out menus which I use for responsive site menus. I have another script that will load a different type of menu, depending on the use case. Finally, there are some Modernizr scripts included to help integrate with older browsers, and a Javascript file with some modifiable scripts included.

There are a few includes that load on initialization, including a PHP based mobile detector in the event that I want to selectively run some server-side code. Functions that run on the admin side of the WordPress dashboard are loaded in a separate file from frontend code, and includes lots of hooks and filters to manage dashboard display and Genesis features, making it easier to toggle them on or off as needed. I’ve been slowly moving some of these functions to plugins that I load on client sites in the event that they change themes, but I kept them here for ease of use.

There are some customizer defaults that get loaded, as well as custom front-page.php, page-landing.php, and single.php. These handle a homepage separate of the latest posts, a page template that removes the header and footer, and an individual post, respectively.

Finally, the functions.php file defines a lot of sane standards, includes more hooks and filters to toggle as needed, and allows some quick repositioning of Genesis actions on specific page types. The stylesheet likewise makes assumptions of how the site will be designed, allowing you to modify as opposed to create from scratch each time. This should still be updated (for instance to be mobile-first), but it’s a familiar standard for me, and for everyone who’s modified a StudioPress theme already.

Why Spend Time on This?

Initially I put extra effort into creating this starter over building a specific client site. I even spend some time now reviewing it and making minor changes over time. Why would I spend time that I could be using for productive work doing something like this?

The investment of time and focus on planning and making templates and defining standards is a long-term gain. I’ve created a collection of code that can be reused over and over again, and set myself up for success every time I start a new site. It’s almost not a joke when I say that I activate this theme and half the work of building a client site is done for me.

By using the same codebase over and over again, I’ve allowed myself mental shortcuts that overall make me more productive, and allow me to provide better value by not reinventing a feature or layout every time I get started. It turns out that time was well spent, as I’ve been able to repeatedly apply this code.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss how I made this process just a bit easier, and learned some new things along the way, to create a theme generator.

For now, download the starter theme here if you want a leg up on building a custom Genesis themed site!

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